Information
Composer: Erkki Melartin
CD1:
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonid Grin, conductor
Date: 1999
Label: Ondine
https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=2458
CD1:
- (01) Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 1
- (05) Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 40
- (01) Symphony No. 2
- (05) Symphony No. 4, Op. 80 (Summer Symphony)
- (01) Symphony No. 5, Op. 90 (Sinfonia Brevis)
- (05) Symphony No. 6, Op. 100
Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonid Grin, conductor
Date: 1999
Label: Ondine
https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=2458
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I remember my first hearing of Erkki Melartin's Symphony No. 5 chiefly because the music was in such lush contrast to the drab cover of that Ondine disc - little more than the composer's name and the words 'Symphonies 5 & 6.' I'm sure I had passed it by several times before I finally borrowed it from the library in the Finnish city where I was living then in spring 1994, half fearful that I'd hear nondescript Finnish modernism.
What I heard was pure delight. I liked it well enough to go looking all these years later to see whether I could buy the Melartin No. 5. I found more than I anticipated: A boxed set from 1999 of all six Melartin symphonies recorded by Leonid Grin and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra … with more winsome cover art this time around.
For the boxed set Ondine has put a painting of Finnish wilderness on the cover, Eero Järnefelt's Maisema Kolilta, A View from Koli. Surely this is more fitting cover art for Melartin, a composer who was also a painter, and whose music, understandably, has sometimes been described in glowing visual terms. (Incidentally, the cover art ought to be significant to Sibelians, since Koli is the fell in eastern Finland that was partly the inspiration, according to Sibelius biographer Erik Tawastjerna, for Sibelius's Symphony No. 4.)
The art also goes a long way toward telling the prospective buyer what's in store, as long as the buyer doesn't expect Sibelius. Instead, picture Mahler/Bruckner on a northern vacation, perhaps borrowing a few tricks from Sibelius. This is music that deserves a wider hearing, and probably didn't get the attention it merited when it first appeared. My first go at the Melartin symphonies will very likely give me the nudge to buy the Melartin Violin Concerto.
The fine essay accompanying these recordings is by Erkki Salmenhaara, a historian of Finnish music. I also found an essay by Osmo Tapio Raihala at the Finnish Music Quarterly Web site helpful. Both these authors probably mention Mahler and Bruckner more often than anyone as influences on Melartin's art. Melartin studied in Vienna and later conducted the first concerts of Mahler's music in the Nordic countries while leading the orchestra in Viborg from 1908 to 1911.
To my mind passages in at least the first five of the Melartin symphonies can be heard as nature music. Salmenhaara uses the word "pastoral" to describe passages in the symphonies 3 and 5; parts of Nos. 1 and 4 are implicitly pastoral because of the folksongs embedded in them; and we know from Melartin's own words that he wrote a part of the No. 2 as a "solitary autumn melody." There's delightful, atmospheric music here that's intended to give us a sense of place and season.
The other common denominator is folk music. When not actually quoting from folk music, as in the No. 1 and No. 4, Melartin is weaving melodies that could have come from folksong. That's the case in No. 3, which contains no folksong material.
I am not absolutely certain, but the boxed set recordings by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonid Grin seem to be simply a repackaging of the earlier discs released in the 1990s. At any rate the digital recordings all date from 1992 to 1994. Sound quality is very good throughout and there are glowing performances from a Finnish orchestra perhaps not as familiar to listeners as the ones in Helsinki and Lahti.
...
That 'solitary autumn melody' brings me back to Järnefelt's cover art, clearly an autumn scene that shows a touch of sun under clouds. That mix of sun and shade might be a good way to describe the Melartin Symphony No. 3, in particular, and perhaps the Melartin cycle in general. But I wonder if there truly is such a visual quality to Melartin's music, or if I only think so because of Raihala's observation that Melartin was also an amateur painter who even held two solo exhibitions of his works? It would be a fair guess that, perhaps more than most composers, Melartin thought visually as well as in sound. At any rate, the endorsement of Leevi Madetoja is good enough for me. Melartin does what a painter does, but in sound. These are symphonies worth looking into.
-- Lance Nixon, MusicWeb International
What I heard was pure delight. I liked it well enough to go looking all these years later to see whether I could buy the Melartin No. 5. I found more than I anticipated: A boxed set from 1999 of all six Melartin symphonies recorded by Leonid Grin and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra … with more winsome cover art this time around.
For the boxed set Ondine has put a painting of Finnish wilderness on the cover, Eero Järnefelt's Maisema Kolilta, A View from Koli. Surely this is more fitting cover art for Melartin, a composer who was also a painter, and whose music, understandably, has sometimes been described in glowing visual terms. (Incidentally, the cover art ought to be significant to Sibelians, since Koli is the fell in eastern Finland that was partly the inspiration, according to Sibelius biographer Erik Tawastjerna, for Sibelius's Symphony No. 4.)
The art also goes a long way toward telling the prospective buyer what's in store, as long as the buyer doesn't expect Sibelius. Instead, picture Mahler/Bruckner on a northern vacation, perhaps borrowing a few tricks from Sibelius. This is music that deserves a wider hearing, and probably didn't get the attention it merited when it first appeared. My first go at the Melartin symphonies will very likely give me the nudge to buy the Melartin Violin Concerto.
The fine essay accompanying these recordings is by Erkki Salmenhaara, a historian of Finnish music. I also found an essay by Osmo Tapio Raihala at the Finnish Music Quarterly Web site helpful. Both these authors probably mention Mahler and Bruckner more often than anyone as influences on Melartin's art. Melartin studied in Vienna and later conducted the first concerts of Mahler's music in the Nordic countries while leading the orchestra in Viborg from 1908 to 1911.
To my mind passages in at least the first five of the Melartin symphonies can be heard as nature music. Salmenhaara uses the word "pastoral" to describe passages in the symphonies 3 and 5; parts of Nos. 1 and 4 are implicitly pastoral because of the folksongs embedded in them; and we know from Melartin's own words that he wrote a part of the No. 2 as a "solitary autumn melody." There's delightful, atmospheric music here that's intended to give us a sense of place and season.
The other common denominator is folk music. When not actually quoting from folk music, as in the No. 1 and No. 4, Melartin is weaving melodies that could have come from folksong. That's the case in No. 3, which contains no folksong material.
I am not absolutely certain, but the boxed set recordings by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonid Grin seem to be simply a repackaging of the earlier discs released in the 1990s. At any rate the digital recordings all date from 1992 to 1994. Sound quality is very good throughout and there are glowing performances from a Finnish orchestra perhaps not as familiar to listeners as the ones in Helsinki and Lahti.
...
That 'solitary autumn melody' brings me back to Järnefelt's cover art, clearly an autumn scene that shows a touch of sun under clouds. That mix of sun and shade might be a good way to describe the Melartin Symphony No. 3, in particular, and perhaps the Melartin cycle in general. But I wonder if there truly is such a visual quality to Melartin's music, or if I only think so because of Raihala's observation that Melartin was also an amateur painter who even held two solo exhibitions of his works? It would be a fair guess that, perhaps more than most composers, Melartin thought visually as well as in sound. At any rate, the endorsement of Leevi Madetoja is good enough for me. Melartin does what a painter does, but in sound. These are symphonies worth looking into.
-- Lance Nixon, MusicWeb International
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erkki_Melartin
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Grin
http://leonidgrin.com/
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